The Methow Conservancy will also announce the recipients of its annual Conservation Awards.

The program, “Wolverines, Grizzly Bears, and the Natural Power of Connections” begins at 7 p.m.

Chadwick will illustrate ways to look at some of the country's wildest wildlife, particularly wolverines and grizzly bears.

According to conservancy Educational Programs Director Mary Kiesau, recent work in the North Cascades is replacing centuries of tales with solid information.

Both wolverines and grizzlies have some surprising and important things to tell us about what conserving nature really means and Chadwick will be able to share that with event-goers, she said.

Chadwick is a frequent National Geographic contributor, with work that spans more than 35 years and more than 50 articles, she said.

His research involves multi-year projects of extended observation of species in their habitat, trapping, radio-collar tracking and studies of community relationships.

Kiesau said Chadwick has studied wolverines in the northwestern U.S. and Canada, mountain goats and grizzlies in the Rockies, and elephants in Africa.

On assignments from Siberia to the Congo River's headwaters, he has produced several hundred popular articles and 11 books, she said.

Chadwick will reveal the natural history of these species and the forces that threaten their futures, she said.

As a volunteer with Glacier Wolverine Project, a five-year study in Glacier National Park near Kalispell, Mont., he discovered information about wolverines’ habitat, social structure and reproduction, she said.

The study was the subject of Chadwick’s book, “The Wolverine Way,” and the Public Broadcasting Service/Nature documentary “Wolverine: Chasing the Phantom.”